Ted Stevens still has lots of fans in Alaska

STERLING, Alaska — Sen. Ted Stevens, days after a Washington D.C. jury found him guilty of seven felonies, stood in the cold outside a senior center and rejected the possibility that a single Republican supporter in Alaska has turned against him.

"I don't believe it," Stevens said Friday. "Not one person has said that to me."

Alaska hasn't elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in nearly 30 years. Stevens himself joined the Senate in 1968, after Gov. Wally Hickel appointed him to the seat. Stevens hasn't faced a close election since — until this year's battle with Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich.

Begich and Stevens are making a last minute push with just two days before the election. Stevens was on the Kenai Peninsula Friday and in Fairbanks Saturday, while Begich held his own rallies in Juneau and Homer. Both seemed to be targeting voters likely already sympathetic to them, rather than making a big push to change minds on the other side.

If anyone can get elected to the U.S. Senate after a guilty verdict, it's Stevens, said Gerald McBeath, political science professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

"He's been there for years, he's delivered so much to the state and made so many people in the state indebted to him," McBeath said.

Stevens, 84, and his small entourage walked through the Peninsula Center mall. Some shoppers, like Dan Mason, bounded over to Stevens to shake his hand and wish him victory.

"I think he's a good man," Mason said later. "He ought to appeal and come out a little bit cleaner."

A couple of young women excitedly asked to have their picture taken with Stevens. But an

Stevens passed out peppermint balls to kids dressed as "Star Wars" characters, witches and Power Rangers. One child was dressed as an FBI agent. He didn't stop by Stevens' trunk for candy.

Stevens has received a hero's welcome at rallies since returning to Alaska last week following the verdict. Around 150 people jammed into small office space in a Soldotna strip mall Friday to support the senator. People hugged him, told him they loved him, urged him to keep up the fight. People had memories of something Stevens' office had done for them, or a local project he'd supported that got built.

"I think he's going to be re-elected, I really do," said Tom Bearup, a one-time mayor of

Soldotna. "This man is a man who has paid the price. He probably hasn't done anything the rest of them haven't done."

Stevens told his supporters he'll be vindicated on appeal and that legal scholars would study his case as an example of prosecutorial abuse of power, with the federal government giving the jury false information and manipulating evidence.

"I don't think senators are entitled to special privilege, but if they can do this to a senator, what can they do to anybody!" Stevens said, to cheers. "You fought for us, we'll fight for you!" somebody yelled.

Last week a federal jury found Stevens guilty of lying on financial disclosure forms about thousands of dollars of gifts and home renovations from the oilfield services company Veco. Stevens denies all wrongdoing, saying the only mistake he made was trusting then-Veco chief executive Bill Allen, a man who he thought was his friend but turned out to be the government's star witness at his trial.

"It was an oversight," said Al Chong of Soldotna, a retiree who attended the rally. "And with all the things he's done for the state of Alaska, we should stand by him. This is a minor thing blown out of proportion."

Begich, 46, had his own rally in Homer on Saturday, trailed by a CNN crew. He spoke to about 150 supporters at a local coffee shop. Most of those attending were Democrats, who were smiling like famine survivors sitting down to a big meal.

Begich gave a short speech, never mentioning Stevens. Afterwards, as people came up to talk, Begich was urged to speak more forcefully about Stevens' conviction.

"I was shocked," Begich told her. "I think what he has not done is be willing to accept reality."

Law professors have said that Stevens is technically correct, that he won't legally be considered "convicted" until his sentencing.

Stevens told Peninsula voters that Alaska needs his experience in the Senate, especially in these times of financial crisis.

"Really, some of us who have lived through the Depression should be in Congress during this," Stevens told a group at the senior center in Sterling. "I think it's highly important for us to continue my representation back there."

One man in the crowd asked Stevens about his boots. The senator said he bought them in 1955 in Fairbanks, and he remembered the name of the man he purchased them from.

That's a Stevens gift as a campaigner - his deep roots in the history of Alaska. He ran into a man at the Trustworthy Hardware store in Soldotna who had been with Stevens on the first flight ever into St. George Island. Stevens recalled the great-grandparents of some kids who came up to him trick or treating.

Begich is connected to the history of the state as well. Larry Smith, 67, shook hands with Begich and pointed to an old campaign button on his weather-beaten cap: "Proudly for Begich Congress." It was a button from a campaign of Begich's father, Nick, who represented Alaska for two years until his disappearance in a 1972 plane crash.

(Cockerham reports for the Anchorage Daily News. Daily News reporter Tom Kizzia contributed to this story from Homer.)